Recently while scrolling twitter we saw a clip from American Idol of judge Katy Perry admonishing an auditioner on the show to “Enunciate!”

The video went viral because of Perry’s incensed reaction, but also because the contestant’s performance of Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie” offered a crystalline example of a popular style of singing that has produced reactions of love and—like for Perry—hate. 

It’s a style that features elongated vowels, clipped consonants, and runaway phrasing associated with contemporary singers like Halsey, Jorja Smith, and Shawn Mendes, and like many things in the 21st century it got its name from a tweet—specifically by the user @trackdroppa who boasted in 2009, “Voice so smooth it’s like i’m singing in cursive”

In this episode we speak to vocal coaches and journalists to to ask: Where did this cursive style come from? What are the vocal techniques used to create this sound? And why does cursive singing create so much backlash?

Songs Discussed

• Shawn Mendes - Stitches


• Zooey Deschanel, M. Ward - Winnie the Pooh


• Mick Jagger - Strange Game


• Selena Gomez, A$AP Rocky - Good For You


• Frank Zappa, Moon Zappa - Valley Girl


• Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse - Valerie


• benny blanco, Halsey, Khalid - Eastside 


• Jorja Smith - Teenage Fantasy


• Tones And I - Dance Monkey


• Sia - Cheap Thrills


• Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On


• Blink-182 - All The Small Things


• SZA - Kill Bill

More

Ashaala Shanae

https://www.themahi.com/founder

Jumi Akinfenwa

https://www.vice.com/en/contributor/jumi-akinfenwa

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